A variety of practitioners prepare and examine specimens to obtain useful information. Those involved in petroleum or other geological exploration often prepare specimens from core samples or rock samples in order to determine whether a site may be of commercial value. Those involved in agriculture or horticulture often must prepare specimens of plants or trees to determine the identity or condition of the subject. Those involved in medicine often must archive and retrieve specimens of a patient's cells or tissues in order to diagnosis and treat a patient. Those involved in investigations often must archive and retrieve specimens of cells or tissue from a subject to identify a person for purposes of criminal investigation, criminal prosecution, paternity testing, genetic testing, or other. Although the present invention is discussed in this application with reference to histological specimens, such as those generally stored in slides or tissue cassettes, the present invention also includes embodiments of systems and methods for archiving and retrieving specimens including soil specimens, geology specimens, plant specimens, food specimens, hydrology specimens, archeological specimens, zoology specimens, criminal evidence specimens, or any other specimen.
Regarding conventional systems and methods for archiving and retrieving specimens, it is well known to store specimens of cells or tissues in a container such as a slide, cassette, block, petri dish, vial, bottle, or other storage containers. In order to do so, specimens must be sized and shaped to fit in the conventional slide or cassette container. In other embodiments, the specimens are stored on or in a container having a size and shape other than a conventional slide or cassette, or are not stored in a container at all. For purposes of this application, the term “specimen” will be used generally to refer to a specimen alone, a specimen treated with a fixing agent, or a specimen in combination with the container in which it is stored. A specimen in combination with a container in which or on which it is stored is also termed a “container specimen” for purposes of this application.
After they are prepared, specimens are often sent to a laboratory or other facility for processing, analysis, or storage. Such laboratories typically handle a large number of specimens. Currently, many laboratories employ the same techniques to store and retrieve specimens that they have been using for many years. In some cases, laboratory employees must move large numbers of specimens at any given time back and forth from extensive storage areas.
With respect to storage, certain conventional systems and procedures require a person to manually place each specimen on a tray, to stack the trays while specimens are processing, to categorize specimens after processing, to move the categorized specimens to a second location for long-term storage, and to prepare a record of where the specimen is stored. Other conventional systems require an additional step of the positioning of specimens in a specific orientation for processing and then returning such specimens to a tray.
With respect to retrieval, conventional systems and methods require a person to look up the location in which a specimen is stored in the relevant records, go to the location, match the physical location with the recorded location, pull out specimen, and record the specimen as “checked out” or removed. Such retrieval steps may be conducted on multiple occasions that a specimen may need to be retrieved.
Clearly, existing systems and procedures are labor intensive, tedious, time-consuming, inefficient, and error-prone. Such systems and procedures often require the full attention of a laboratory technician. In addition, a specimen cannot be easily located at certain times during the course of the procedure since a record of interim locations is often not made. Also, the time-consuming steps delay the diagnosis or treatment of a patient.
Other disadvantages of existing systems and methods include the possibility for loss, damage, or mismanagement of specimens, which may have serious consequences to patient care, criminal prosecutions, and research objectives. Because of the seriousness of the consequences, there may be liability issues such as malpractice or privacy concerns with mishandling of specimens.
Attempts to improve the known systems and methods to facilitate the storage and retrieval of specimens have been made. However, often these systems and methods require the use of complex apparatus, for example, to treat slides such as by staining specimens on slides, to wash specimens on slides, to position coverslips on slides, or to make digital images of the specimens. Such inefficient apparatus use space that could be used to store additional specimens, and accordingly, do not maximize the number of specimens that could be stored in that space.
Also, certain conventional methods call for the discarding of specimens in order to resolve storage space issues. The College of American Pathologists has recognized the problem of storing specimens for long periods of time and has lowered its standards to permit discarding certain types of specimens earlier. However, such methods of discarding specimens earlier may have a detrimental impact on patient care, research, and criminal investigations.
Conventional systems and methods are often expensive to implement and maintain. As an example, certain hospitals may generate around one million specimens per year. Since workplace regulations often limit the height of certain types of storage bureaus, additional building square footage is often required to provide sufficient storage space for specimens.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and methods for archiving and retrieving a collection of specimens that utilize automated elements which permit archiving and retrieving with improved efficiency, decreased cost, and in which space for the storage of specimens is maximized.